Garments of the general type described are well-known. In particular, disposable diapers and incontinent garments are widely described in the patent literature and elsewhere. Among such publications are patents that relate to classes of garments that are provided with various suspension or attaching means. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,315,508, which issued to M. E. Bolick on Feb. 16, 1982, teaches a waist suspension system comprising a non-integral, fully detachable elastic strip on each side of the garment, the ends of the strips being provided with buttons or other fastening means intended to cooperate with means provided in the diaper material such as buttonholes. Essentially, the elastic strips act like suspenders on the wearer's hips and hold the diaper in place. U.S. Pat. No. 3,386,442, which issued to R. Sabee on June 4, 1968, teaches a disposable diaper of a generally rectangular shape in which the diaper material in each side margin is longitudinally cut or perforated from just inside one end of the diaper to just inside the other. A lateral perforation is also made along the diaper's lateral axis extending from the longitudinal perforation to the outside edge of the diaper. When ready for use, the perforations are broken, resulting in two integral belt segments being formed in each side margin of the diaper to be knotted or otherwise held together about the waist of the wearer. Lastly, U.S. Pat. No. 2,224,518, which issued to J. H. Lakritz on Dec. 10, 1940, teaches a nondisposable diaper of generally rectangular shape having integral ties (belt segments) which are formed as forwardly extending continuations of the side margins of the diaper. The ties are adapted to be insertable through openings at the opposite end of the diaper so as to fasten the diaper about the wearer.
Garments of the type described in the prior art, as well as those which have been available commercially, suffer from one or more of the following deficiencies: they are uncomfortable in that the elastic strips and buttons tend to irritate the wearer; they are size-dependent and unable to accommodate a variety of wearers; they tend to sag in use resulting in significant leakage; they are expensive to manufacture; and they are not readily refastenable, thereby inhibiting a parent, an incontinent, or a person in charge of a incontinent from opening the garment and examining for wetness or from easily lowering and then refastening the garment when using bathroom facilities.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a combination of an absorbent garment and a waist belt attachment system which overcomes, to a great degree, the deficiencies in the prior art structures. It is an additional object of the present invention to provide an absorbent garment having a single integral belt segment in each side margin of the garment for use as part of a waist belt attachment system.
While the subject technology has application on all diaper-like garments, it has particular application on diaper-like garments in which the sides of the garment do not meet along the sides of the wearer when worn, as is often the case with adult size garments.